Any number of automobile manufactures should fire a bunch of staff and hire you. How we got to touch screens to control things which previously didn't require taking your eye off the road continues to amaze me.
The subtle art of designing physical controls for cars
101–110 of 242 posts
Re: The subtle art of designing physical controls for cars
#102One obvious (but probably obsolete) use of this would be a radio tuner where the strength of the detent is proportional to the strength of the radio signal.
Re: The subtle art of designing physical controls for cars
#103I applaud the author for putting thought into how to design digital controls, in contrast to the "just put whatever garbage on a touch screen" strategy most carmakers do today. However, I still question the benefit of this complex, modal control (you have to press a single knob to "cycle between" multiple modes). My ancient, 2016 car features three knobs. This luxury allows me to, without looking, adjust any of three…
My 1997 Lexus has a knob that controls the digital climate control. Except that instead of a spinny position encoder, they used a knob with stops so you have tactile feedback for when the temperature is all the way up or down. This is the kind of detail that I love about a well engineered car.
Curious if I am missing a detail: It sounds like a knob with endstops, incremental notches for a finite number of positions between the endstops, and probably a spinny position encoder underneath it?
(this also describes my 2009 saturn; I think; unsure, but that's a good sign: I don't look at/think about this knob conciously!)
Re: The subtle art of designing physical controls for cars
#104It's wild to me that so many people ITT obviously hate many aspects of the interface they have with their cars, and yet buy them new anyway and deal with it. Having not had a car for years, the only time I'd find this acceptable is if I was just buying a palatable but imperfect used car rather than a new one that's tens of thousands. I'd accept that some of these issues may not be discovered during the lead up resear…
What's the alternative? Most cars have similar interfaces, and few are what I would want; but if you have already decided to buy a new "luxury van" (fill in your preferred type and trim), then you don't really get much of a choice.
Re: The subtle art of designing physical controls for cars
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree. I don't want a "smart" knob. I'm dreading going car shopping sometime this next year. I anticipate having to rule out a large pool of cars to keep my controls navigable without looking.
I've found one good solution to this problem (for AC, at least): go for a car with a good "auto" mode! I hardly ever touch my AC, I just leave it on auto and the car does the rest to get it to the right temperature as quickly as possible. I suspect this is what most automakers think the real solution should be, just make it easy enough to set a temp and leave the rest to the computer.
That's a reasonable point. Too bad an auto mode for my music and podcasts (of varying volume; also varying with whether I have a passenger) is probably not a thing...
On the other hand, my sense with how I use temperature control in my car is that most of my interactions are (a) set mode at start of driving (b) incrementally turn the temperature dial a notch or two without looking at it.
Re: The subtle art of designing physical controls for cars
#106I learned this lesson the hard way with my early 2000s BMW 5 Series (a 2004 model). It had a single joystick-style knob (iDrive, if I remember correctly) controlling a screen that handled everything—climate, settings, and more. The problem? It was an all-in-one system, completely integrated with vehicle functions, which meant you couldn’t swap it out for a newer or better OEM system. You were stuck with aging tech, a…
My 2021 BMW has iDrive and physical buttons and dials. It’s a fantastic system. A lot of iDrive systems can be replaced, though I do worry where the cheap ebay components come from. Later iDrive was so much better than earlier, probably the best system I have used in a car, but now they have gone with huge touch screens. yes it looks impressive and no I don't want it.
iDrive 7 (what you probably have in your 2021, and what I've had in 2022 and 2020 BMWs) is peak iDrive to me. The important stuff (climate control, volume, radio on/off) still has physical non-capacitive buttons, while the radio is entirely controllable with the touchscreen OR iDrive Controller (the puck in the center console). I barely have to take my eyes off the road to do anything, even in the iDrive system, since I have muscle memory for the iDrive Controller motions.
And now they're rolling out iDrive 8 vehicles that move climate control to the touchscreen and don't even have the puck (looking at you, X1) and I can't imagine buying one of those cars. I'm happy with my 2020.
Re: The subtle art of designing physical controls for cars
#107My favorite car control system is the BMW iDrive rotary dial. Touch screens are fine for given much more fine-grained access to controls. But they should be limited to controls that you _don't need to set while driving_. It's absurd that it takes 3 taps on a screen -- diverting my attention to the screen -- on my Tesla to turn on defogging (a common event here!) while I can do it with a one touch (now muscle-memorize…
Did you ever tried to use the rotary dial for text input? I gave up immediately. The car has a regular screen regular, no touch. Something is good only when balanced.
They have touchscreens now, so you can input text with an on-screen keyboard but do everything else with the controller.
Re: The subtle art of designing physical controls for cars
#108[dead]
Re: The subtle art of designing physical controls for cars
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree. I don't want a "smart" knob. I'm dreading going car shopping sometime this next year. I anticipate having to rule out a large pool of cars to keep my controls navigable without looking.
Don't forget that almost every car made in the last 5 years reports telemetry (including vehicle speed, accelerometer data, and location) back to the manufacturer who shares that data with third parties, sometimes including insurance companies.
And guess who gets use of that data in lawsuits between the manufacturer and you?!
Re: The subtle art of designing physical controls for cars
#110this is why I want my next car to have physical dials.